A Fresh Blend: Boyd Coffee and FastTrack Schedule

One hundred years of providing service to the Pacific Northwest makes Boyd Coffee
Company coffee experts. But it’s FastTrack Schedule that makes them project
management experts. After a period of recent growth, the family-owned coffee company
was facing their third major expansion in just thirty years, and they needed a project
scheduler to help them manage the job.

The company’s growth called for the expansion of its Portland, Oregon headquarters
to accommodate their growing manufacturing departments. Construction for the additional
132,000 sq. feet of warehouse space was kept on track using FastTrack Schedule as
well as FastTrack Schedule for the Palm OS.

Up and Running, Quickly

"We just loaded the software and began adding data. The project was scheduled
within hours of receiving data from all of the contractors,” says John Gillam.

Gillam is the Vice President of Manufacturing for Boyd Coffee Company. He, along
with Plant Engineer David Muck, are both serving as the company contacts for the
project and each utilize FastTrack Schedule on their desktops as well as their handheld
devices. After observing the results, more employees are already learning to use
the program.

According to Gillam, the desktop version of the software was beneficial for
providing a schedule to measure the performance of contractors. Gillam was able
to create a schedule to correspond with the actual construction schedule for the
building expansion. FastTrack Schedule is also being utilized for its cost tracking
ability. In fact, the next five years of capital expenses are already laid out.

Project Schedules to Go

But Gillam reports that it was the Palm version of the program and the ability
to have access to project information while away from the office that persuaded
him to go with FastTrack Schedule.
“Having field accessibility via the Palm Pilot will, in my opinion, provide
the greatest benefit,” he says. “Although the project is just beginning,
FastTrack Schedule is turning out to be beneficial in keeping communications up
to date with all involved.”

With their latest expansion project making its way toward completion, is Boyd
Coffee Company planning for future growth? If so, they’ve already got the
perfect tool for the job, thanks to FastTrack Schedule.